WipEout 2D - A Fangame Proof of Concept

[Amorbis]

WipEout 2D is a fangame I have been working on by myself for a short while using Game Maker, a simple game making program.


http://www.majhost.com/gallery/ao/WipEout/w2dscreen.png


Aside from the physics and graphics scaling, which have been adapted from Game Maker Community resources, the game has been made from scratch. The sprites and track environment have been drawn by me using Photoshop and MS Paint.

I'm releasing the current version of WipEout 2D to the WipEout Zone community for feedback and testing. I know there is another fangame project going on at the moment, I don't want to interfere with it so I'll try my best to keep this one separate to avoid confusion. If you find anything wrong with the game or have any suggestions, then please let me know.

Instructions on how to play the game can be found on the menu screen when you press F1. To download the game click the download link below.

Download (https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By3LRriVJwvHOTZhNmIxNzItNWEyZS00OGQ1LWI0N DMtNTczOWQ0MDQwNTU0&sort=name&layout=list&num=50) - Revision 1

For latest version and change log click [/URL][URL="http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showpost.php?p=208921&postcount=30"]here (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showpost.php?p=196069&postcount=12).

Also thanks to the WOZ community for the sound effect files and fonts that I've borrowed from the download section, they've been useful!

If the image is too large or this thread is in the wrong forum area then feel free to change it.

[SaturnReturn]

I really like it. A few things from first impressions:

1. I tried Piranha on track 1 and it made a 'clunk' sound when I hit walls. I then tried G-45 on track 4 and there was no clunk sound, but I was still hitting walls (lots).

2. A countdown seems to be absent when starting a race.

3. A 'Quit' button from the menu would be good.

4. The track checking pattern moves around in a way that I imagine would be uneasy on the eye after a little while.

5. F11 doesn't bring up any help menu or anything for me.

I think it's really cool in all and as soon as I started it I imagined people would even be competing for top times on it if you can make it bring up their time at the end and then go to the menu on a button click.

I think there's plenty more that can be done with it but am not sure how much more you want to do with it so won't throw a million suggestions at you at once.

Anyway, good job.:rock

[Amorbis]

Thanks for the feedback Saturn!

The clunk noises should be easy to fix, I'll have to go and look at the collision detection on the other ships. Same for F11 and the quit button.

I used a checkered pattern for the track to improve the sense of motion, so that it looks like your moving quicker. I'll try a texture or something similar to be easier on the eye. I missed out on some of the obvious things like a countdown so that I could make it public a bit sooner.

I forgot to mention, how was the performance of the game? I have it running at around 40 to 60fps average on my mid range computer, so it might run worse on different machines.

Edit: Turns out the instructions button is set to F1 for some reason, silly me.

[SaturnReturn]

No idea about performance, but it ran perfectly smooth on my laptop - Sony e series with intel i5and 1GB ATI Radeon graphics. I guess it shouldn't have any problems with that.

I tried FEISAR on track 4 and it wasn't making the collision sound either, so it may be the track rather than the ships.

[Rotational_aspect]

My Win 7 64bit machine doesnt like your .exe, which is a shame, I was looking forward to playig this!

I did like the retro ASCII Wipeout 2D splash though- might have to use somethign similar in my game.....

[Amorbis]

That's odd, I'm currently using Windows 7 64-Bit. Have you tried running it in any compatibility modes? Or in administrator mode? It's something I might have to look into otherwise, but it might be a problem with the game making software and not the game itself.

[SaturnReturn]

Mine is Windows7 65-Bit too and no problems here.:?

[Challenger #001]

No issues here on XP, and good grief, this is good. Well done Amorbis, this is good fun. :D A+

[Rotational_aspect]

OK, got it working. It was me being a bit of a divvy actually. What I was doing was selecting the track directly, so that it only loaded the track (and no ship!).

I like it! Have you thought of doing different graphical styles, for exmple 2D ASCII, Vector (pun fully intended!) graphics or chunky 8 bit goodness? I would frankly wet my pants right now if you intergrated some Designers Republic typography into your project.

Other than doing my 3d racing game (on 'Lets make a wipeout game for real' thread) I always wanted to do a 2d game or fan edit F-Zero into Wipeout. I bet Nintendo would probrably sonic boom my nuts though! I'm surprised how any WO projects exist now that Sony are on the offensive over IP after the PS3 was hacked.

[MegaGeeza22]

Its good! i tried it out on my new pc and it worked a treat!
The only bad thing i found was when you crash head on into the side, you cant move... it would be good if you could turn when the ship is stationary.
Its a million times better than anything i could make so i cant really moan lol.
Great job:+

[Amorbis]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Rotational_aspect I like the idea of multiple styles but it may be difficult to implement, mainly because I'm not a great pixel artist... But I can look into increasing the DR influence though as I'm a huge fan of what they did in Wip3out especially.

I probably shouldn't be getting as much praise as they physics engine is not my work, but is a modified version of a car physics engine that is available on the Gamer Maker forum. I did have to tweak it a lot for the floaty feeling of an AG-Ship, but as you've pointed out MegaGeeza, you can't move while sitting still very easily.

I'll look into making an error message when you don't choose a ship and then do something about sitting still.

[Amorbis]

Sorry for the double post, but I have made some progress with implementing the things that you have all suggested.

Change log as of 03/04/2011:


Quit button on the menu screen
Help menu should now appear when you press F1
You can no longer choose a track before a ship
Menu screen has sound effects
Curly now appears at the start of a time trial to countdown
Ships can now move when still by pressing left or right
Your final time displays at the end in a pop-up
Custom soundtracks - you can place up to 4 MP3 files named 'music1.mp3', 'music2.mp3' etc in the same folder as WipEout 2D

Download the new version here: WipEout 2D V2 (https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By3LRriVJwvHMjNiZDE3NjQtOGY5Yy00NzFlLTljN TAtMDZmZTMxMWE3MGVj&hl=en).

I'm still looking for feedback, so feel free to contribute your thoughts and errors you may find. I've found some Wip3out track layouts here on WOZ so if I have the time I'll start to add those tracks into the game.

Also I remember there being a GIF animation of Curly doing her countdown floating around the Zone and the internet. I've found one on DeviantArt but it isn't a direct rip and is on a billboard, plus it isn't mine anyway. If anyone has the one I'm thinking of then I would appreciate it!

[Rotational_aspect]

Much more polished! I didnt manage to break it this time.

The only thing now is to keep on going and add as much WO goodness as you can, like powerups, sideshift etc, as well as some AI chums to play with.

[F.E.I.S.A.R]

The custom music suddenly blasting at the menu was a bit...shocking.

[Copernicus]

I gave your game a shot. Not optimized. Seeing you are using someone else's engine and just doing a proof of concept, I can understand that.

I've been programming Game Maker for 5 years. Been working on a commercial racing game for almost 4 years now. If you need any help let me know. But you need to decide your priorities before optimization (it could drastically affect your AI, like in my game).

Question: is the game running in d3d mode, or are you just using a parallax scrolling system?

[Amorbis]

It isn't using D3D mode, but scaling to give the impression of a 3D wall. I'm not sure how far I'm going to take this project, especially with implementation of AI and other modes. Really it was more of a demo of what a WipEout game could be like as a top down PC game.

I'm not that great at using Game Maker, so I've been looking at the Game Maker forums for tips on how to do stuff. I certainly wouldn't be able to make a commerical wuality game.

[Rotational_aspect]

Why not transfer to Blender? Most of the hard stuff has been done in the other game thread (AI, weapons, controls), its just the graphics that need doing (they would be 3d but top down).

[Amorbis]

Since my exams have ended this year I have decided to bring this project back from the dead. The latest release doesn't have any new tracks or ships, but does feature some basic AI ships and some small changes to the handling of the player ships.

Download here.
(https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By3LRriVJwvHYTkwOTExNmUtZWUwNS00ODVkLThkZ mUtYzEzNjdhZDIwZDNj&hl=en_US)
Change log as of 03/07/2011:


Added opponent AI
Opponents can be switched off on the home menu
Handling for FEISAR and Goteki45 has been modified
Tracks 3 and 4 now feature scenery
3D wall effect has been removed for performance reasons

As usual you can leave any feedback, suggestions or bugs/weird things that you've found in the game.

[(•.•)™]

That's pretty cool! Is this inspired by the PlayStation Home WipEout 2D?

[Amorbis]

I've only ever played the 2D game in Home once when it was first available, so there isn't really any inspiration from it. I think my game is more about what WipEout would be as 2D game from the ground-up, but I can see how the two games are similar.

[Rotational_aspect]

Good update!

Suggestions:

Make the tracks bigger- perhaps its me and my keyboard skills but the corners are too sharp, and its too easy to oversteer. If you scaled up the tracks the corners may become smoother (and easier to steer around).

Custom soundtrack

If you do the first suggestion, up the AI numbers to 8 or 12- with weapons!

But it is shaping up well!

[Amorbis]

Thanks for the input Rotational_Aspect. I could make some changes to the tracks, making some of the thin areas wider, but I was planning on including some different speed settings to that issue may resolve itself eventually. Adding extra AI might be a problem due to the track layouts and having too many ships on the track. I could add 8 ships but it would probably cause problems with the paths the AI take and when they collide.

There is a custom soundtrack already implemented, though it's a bit confusing. You need to add MP3s renamed "music1.mp3", "music2.mp3" etc. to the same file as the game and it should work.

I've also uploaded a video of a slightly newer version of the game here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xOJiyhBpJs

You can watch the video if you don't want to download the game.

[Amorbis]

Sorry for the bump/double post, but I have a more recent version of the game to share. I'm not sure what I should do about the name of the game. I can keep it the same and cause confusion with the existing Home game, or change it to something silly like a date.

Download by clicking here. (https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By3LRriVJwvHMWFhZTMyOGUtYjViZi00OWIxLWEwO WYtZDJmMjYxYjdiNGI3&hl=en_US)

Change log as of 13/07/2011:


Added speed classes, including Vector, Venom, Rapier and Phantom
Made changes to track 2 to widen the track
Adjusted the stats of Auricom for game balance
Changed game logo and loading screen

Watch gameplay footage of the game here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xOJiyhBpJs

[Rotational_aspect]

Nice to see the project progressing!

Crits:

I dont like the new splash screen. Its a shame you can't take the ascii text and use that as an influence on the overall style of the ui- perhaps take some inspiration from a DR webpage http://www.pho-ku.com/ that always gives me ideas (hover your mouse cursor over the options for a laugh!). Or if you can't decide, somehow get it to shuffle splash screens.

Names? How about (off the top of my head) Wipeout Elevation, Wipeout Pixel, Wipeout Arial (the little mermaids going to die?:+), µWipeout (since your game is tiny 2mb, thus micro µ), Wipeout Retro, Wipeout C64 (make the people who use the Wipeout64 forum do a double take!), Wipeout Raster (as in rasterisation), Wipeout GM (should please the GameMaker crowd).

I still think you should try to make the buildings 3D, or at least have another layer above the ships in parallax to give an impression of depth (look at the original GTA on the PC as a guide). At the minute it still looks a bit flat.

If you can, try to get the timer to show a float value (as with most on-screen timers) rather than integers. Having only seconds looks a bit 'odd'.

Hope this is of some help!

[Amorbis]

The home screen is streamlined as I keep adding to it without really thinking about where things should go. The Designer's Republic is always an influence on anything WipEout, the only thing is that most of their stuff isn't exactly designed with user friendliness in mind, which I feel is important for a game. I'll still make use of their design ideas though as they are some of the best and form the basis of WipEout's style.

The issue I have with 3D buildings is performance. It might run fine on time trial with a decent PC, but on a laptop it doesn't run very well if I have 3D and the other craft switched on. I am adding to the environment though, such as with the parallax sky and clouds, maybe parallax buildings too.

As ever I appreciate the input. I'll see what I can do about the timer, I was going to add a speedometer as well. I'll see if I can get it to work properly.

[Copernicus]

Because this is a computer game, you need to make your game have customizable settings. Wipeout games, being on consoles, don't have to worry about random graphics cards, processors, or memory. You do. Some people want 3D, but on some computers it runs too slow. The solution is to program both 3D and 2D graphics and allow them to be toggled from an options menu.
I've done that in my racing game, which has reached alpha. For speed considerations you should also be able to toggle the background effects. Some PC gamers are also biased when it comes to full-screen/windowed and the having their computer monitor resolution changed.

[jesse9705]

This is cool, reminds me of the old Starwars Podracer Gameboy color game!
But i have encountered a glitch with the custom music, When i name them music1 music2 and music3, Music2 plays first instead.
But i was wondering would you like me to do some weapon and speed pad tiles for you, if so what size should the tiles be?

[Killercrusher232]

WipEout SD

Also these:
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/162/e/1/icaras_8_bit_by_killercrusher232-d3imtkl.png

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/228/0/8/ag_systems_8_bit_by_killercrusher232-d46r8xm.png

[Darkdrium777]

Amorbis is secretly Zico Liu.

Seriously, good job on this. Very impressive stuff.

[Amorbis]

Thanks for the interest everyone, I hadn't really been keeping up with my own thread, I haven't touched this for a long time as I'm busy at University. :redface:

This isn't an open project so I'm not taking any work off anyone. Thanks for the offer anyway Jesse, you can have a look at the other project going on here (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7584) if you haven't already.

The side on ships are good, but they aren't the Wip3out designs so wouldn't really fit in. I could see using a side on view for ship selection maybe.

I'm not Zico, but perhaps I could set some times for you all to beat in 5 minutes. ;)

After digging through some files I've found a later unreleased version for you to look at.

Changes as of November-December 2011:


Menu System
Ship menu
Options menu
Speed choice in options menu
Turn Ai on/off
Other small tweaks

Download here: WipEout 2D v5 (https://docs.google.com/open?id=0By3LRriVJwvHZDkzOWI4MmMtNzljZS00YWIwLWIyM zYtMGNmYmI0OWMxZTRi)

[Killercrusher232]

Send me some screens of the ships (sides preferably lol) and i'll get to work!

[Amorbis]

As I said in my previous post it isn't really an open project, but thanks for the interest. :)

I'm not really looking to add anything else to the game as it is. As a fan game I'm limited to what already exists within WipEout so if I was to take this game one step further it would be as my own game i.e. with my own team and track designs. That way I can have infinite creativity over my own project.

[Killercrusher232]

http://youtu.be/BhsTmiK7Q2M <-- THIS:+

[tommyboy716]

Well You Dont Exactly Have To Make it an open project.... we would just love to see what we could do with the Extraordinary Program you have already created so far. if you still didnt want to do this... I have Few Suggestions if you want...

The lap times is basically multiplied by four. so One Second = 4 Seconds... which either the game is laggy due to my computers performance... or just how the Timer is set.

Positions are non existent now I know from looking at the Let's Make A Wipeout Game! Thread that, that isn't easy as said.

The Looping Airship sound isn't linked to a ship on the command of Acceleration. so it is constantly playing without any sort of movement... ( With and Without AI)

I Know this is game is far beyond my capabilities... so i don't know how hard is actually is to create this.... I'd Like to say... BRAVO.... I love it... :clap

[Amorbis]

I appreciate the praise! However the game can't be perfect.

The timer works fine if the game is running at full speed. I don't have any lower-end hardware to test the game on so some things go unnoticed. :(

Positions are something I've tried to do a few times. My attempt at it failed and I couldn't find a definitive answer on how to do it from any other Game Maker users. It seems to be one of the shortfalls of the program.

I did redo some of the graphics, but I can't really set on a style...

[abukii]

Will this run on a Linux OS?? I am running OpenSuse.

Looks awesome, btw :+

[Amorbis]

If you use Wine it should run, but I haven't tested it personally. Game Maker doesn't let you export the game as anything other than a Windows .exe file.

[abukii]

Cool, Amorbis.Ill give it a go :)

[Copernicus]

Finding lap position depends on how the track and AI is constructed. If you can explain how its built I might be able to provide a method.

[jesse9705]

Man i really like this game, It'd be fun racing online in 2D, I'd like to see some additional ships though, And a few more tracks

[Amorbis]

Implementing new ships would be easy enough, but adding online isn't something I'd plan on doing. I know Game Maker is capable of it, but it seems like a lot of trouble to implement.


Finding lap position depends on how the track and AI is constructed. If you can explain how its built I might be able to provide a method.

The track is built entirely out of objects, with the AI ships randomly switching from a number of set paths at certain points based on a dice roll to give the impression of more human racers. So the AI are really only objects set to follow a path and move out of the way of each other.

[abukii]

Well, I havent tried on Linux yet (my laptop got bricked) but, I did play on Windows and its awesome! Reminds me a lot of the HOME game. Very, very cool, Amorbis.

Any chance of seeing AG's beuty grace your game??

[jesse9705]

Amorbis, Do you plan on adding modes like Zone, And do you plan on adding weapons and a medal system, And i'd like to see some Skins of the AG crafts being added?

[Amorbis]

I don't plan on adding any more modes, I'd hoped to keep it a bit more simple. Weapons are a funny one because I would have to add damage and ship health, as well as the weapon pads, if I was doing this as a full time project I would probably add them.

I could always add the missing 4 ships, but not ship skins. Game Maker does allow for players to import images into games so I could always do a custom ship and provide a template for it.

[Germanistgeek]

what's the name of the game engine you used for this game ? i want to make the ame game but with different tracks and ships from pulse.

[Amorbis]

You can get Game Maker here: http://www.yoyogames.com/make

If you're using Game Maker you can use this:
http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=462811

I based the physics on that, but I had to make some big changes to get the floatiness I wanted for the ships. So you will have to make the changes to get it to feel like Pulse.

[Germanistgeek]

Oh, an another question : Where did you find your sprites ? I can't find any WippEout ship sprite.

[Amorbis]

I made all the sprites and graphics myself! :)

If you have the patience you could always use Pulse's photo mode on the PSP to take a picture of the ship from the top and cut around it in Paint or Photoshop if you have it.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

I don't like the current control scheme. I am used to using the WASD keys like in First Person shooters, and I really do think that it is more natural to me to use those instead of the arrow keys. Can you please add support for those keys, or better yet allow for custom control schemes?

Another cool idea of mine: Steering with the mouse! This would allow you to emulate analogue control. In addition, it would feel right, as you would always be steering in the direction you were pointing in. Admittedly, some ships will still take longer to steer than others, but just think about it! You certainly won't oversteer as often in a FEISAR.
Some people have objections to this idea, but my idea is actually very simple, you make the game think the mouse is an analogue stick.

Also, Airbrakes and Side-Shifts would be very nice, as well as two different camera options: One where it is aligned to the track (as it currently is) and one where it rotates so that your ship is always facing up. This would be really great for those using keyboard controls. And the physics system is horrible, you should make it more like WipEout Fusion's physics (instead of stopping completely when you hit a wall, you just slow down, and you will be steered slighly by the collision to make it easier to get away from said wall).

Finally, the menu and HUD could use an awful lot of work. You should get Xpand to help you with them.


If you have the patience you could always use Pulse's photo mode on the PSP to take a picture of the ship from the top and cut around it in Paint or Photoshop if you have it.

I use Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net), which is VERY good software. You shoud try it. And if you can get a copy, try Adobe Illustrator as well (just remember to save it as a .png or .tga file). If you can't afford Illustrator, I might be able to send you a copy through email. Send me a private message for the details.

[Amorbis]

Thanks for the feedback Amaroq, I replied to your Youtube comment on the video as well. You make good points but I did stop working on this to focus on University projects instead. I did plan on adding all of the usual WipEout features, such as airbrakes and weapons, but stopped working on it before then. I doubt I'll ever start it up again sadly as other things currently have my attention.

In the mean time everyone can play play what the game does have, or look forward to the other fan game here on WOZ, which is looking quite good.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Why don't you join the Slipstream GX team for the time being? Not sure what you could contribute, but I am sure you will think of something.


I also hope your University projects go well. Do any of them involve DigiPen, by chance?

[Amorbis]

The Slipstream team seem capable enough without me, I'm sure they don't need another designer or 3D modeller. Having too many could complicate things a bit.

My University doesn't do anything Digipen, they run a course they have written themselves.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Oh well. It would still be nice to have another programmer around.

I did however find someone who uses Gamemaker who might want to continue your work in the near future (once they finish their own project).

Edit: Here is an unofficial Fan-Fiction/Roleplay thread: FlaT'out (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?9000-FlaT-out-AG-Racing-in-a-2D-world&p=221510#post221510)\

And if you ever restart your project, since the camera doesn't rotate with the ship, you should change the controls to this [you can reconfigure them to your personal preferences]
[W / UP_ARROW] - Steer North
[A / LEFT_ARROW] - Steer West
[S / DOWN_ARROW] - Steer South
[D / RIGHT_ARROW] - Steer East
[SHIFT] - Accelerate
[SPACE] - Airbrakes
[E] - Fire Weapon
[Q] - Absorb Weapon
[ESC] - Pause